Ustica stripped local recognition for fascist dictator in law snaring all those deceased, but debate continues elsewhere

A simple vote last Friday was enough to strip Walt Disney of his honorary citizenship of Ustica, as the tiny Sicilian island of 1,300 people passed a law saying that only the living could be granted such recognition.

But the late American animator was mere collateral damage: the true target was Benito Mussolini , Italy’s fascist dictator, who eight decades after his death remains an honorary citizen of hundreds of Italian towns and cities, much to the disgust of many of their inhabitants.

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Visiting such ancient places is a privilege that often makes living in them miserable – it’s only fair that tourists pay for their upkeep

Venice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging them to enter . It is not alone. Tourism is under attack. Seville is charging for entry to the central Plaza de España. In Paris, the Mona Lisa is so besieged by flashing phones she is about to be banished to a basement . Barcelona graffiti shout , “Tourists go home, refugees welcome.” Amsterdam wants no more coach parties, nor does Rome .

The Venice payment will be complicated . It will apply at specific entry points only to day trippers to the city centre, not hotel guests. It will be a mere five euros and confined to peak times of day over the summer. This will hardly cover the cost of running it. It is a political gesture that is unlikely to stem the tourist flow round the Rialto and St Mark’s Square, let alone leave more room for Venetians to enjoy their city undisturbed by mobs.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist

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Some residents say €5 fee aimed at curtailing over-tourism goes against principle of freedom of movement

Venice’s entrance charge for day-trippers has got off to a shaky start, bewildering people staying in hotels who needed to prove their exemption and drawing protests from some residents.

The €5 (£4.30) charge, aimed at curtailing over-tourism, has ignited fury among some residents. The charge kicked in at 8.30am on Thursday and will apply on 29 peak days until 14 July as part of a trial phase.

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Paola Cortellesi’s directing debut, in which she also stars, depicts gruelling domestic abuse before finding its way to startling redemption

Italian actor and singer Paola Cortellesi has been breaking hearts and box office records on her home turf with this directing debut. It’s a richly and even outrageously sentimental working-class drama of postwar Rome, a story of domestic abuse whose heroine finally escapes from misogyny and cruelty through a piece of narrative sleight-of-hand that borders on magic-neorealism, performed with shameless theatrical flair and marvellously composed in luminous monochrome. The film pays homage to early pictures by De Sica and Fellini, and Cortellesi’s own performance is consciously in the spirit of movie divas such as Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren and Giulietta Masina.

The scene is Rome just after the end of the second world war, when American GIs were a presence on the streets and Italian women had just been given the right to vote – though exercising it while under the baleful eye of the film’s misogynist menfolk is another matter. Cortellesi plays Delia, a woman who is being regularly beaten by her brutish husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea). He makes her slave around the house, skivvy to his cantankerous bedridden father (great stuff from veteran comic turn Giorgio Colangeli), and do odd jobs around the city, the cash payment for which she has to hand over at the end of every day. Their teenage daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano), who sees how her mother is being brutalised and humiliated, is made to sleep in the same bedroom as her two brattish kid brothers, and when she receives a proposal of marriage from a well-off local boy, she, like her parents, is thrilled – at first.

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Day-trippers will have to pay €5 to visit Italian city under scheme designed to protect it from excess tourism

Authorities in Venice have been accused of transforming the famous lagoon city into a “theme park” as a long-mooted entrance fee for day trippers comes into force.

Venice is the first major city in the world to enact such a scheme. The €5 (£4.30) charge, which comes into force today, is aimed at protecting the Unesco world heritage site from the effects of excessive tourism by deterring day trippers and, according to the mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, making the city “livable” again.

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Home secretary visits Lampedusa in Italy as National Audit Office says scheme could surpass £580m by 2030

Several flights a month will deport asylum seekers to Rwanda “indefinitely”, the home secretary has said, as he argued that the £1.8m a person cost of the scheme was justified.

James Cleverly, in his first interview since the government’s plan was approved by parliament on Monday, said he had booked a succession of initial flights and was preparing to order the detention of people seeking refuge in the UK so they could be sent to east Africa.

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Investigation urged into alleged bid to turn Rai into propaganda channel for ruling parties before elections

The European commission has been urged to investigate alleged attempts by Italy’s far-right government to turn the public broadcaster, Rai, into a “megaphone” for the ruling parties ahead of the European elections.

The appeal from the European Green party came after the Italian parliament’s supervisory committee for Rai approved a measure allowing the broadcaster’s news channel to televise political rallies in full and without any journalistic mediation in the run-up to the vote in early June.

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Health, jobs, defence, security and climate crisis all seen as more important than immigration with June elections approaching

Irregular migration is not the top priority for European voters despite the prominence of the issue in the media and political campaigning by rightwing parties over the last year, a new survey commissioned by the European parliament shows.

The Eurobarometer poll which tracks public opinions every quarter puts poverty and the cost of living crisis and social exclusion as the number one issue for voters who go to the polls in early June to elect a new European parliament.

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Opposition parties say women’s rights dealt blow after package approved by Georgia Meloni’s cabinet

Italian opposition parties have said women’s rights in Italy have been dealt a “heavy” blow after parliament passed a measure by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government allowing anti-abortion activists to enter abortion consultation clinics.

The measure forms part of a package of initiatives approved by Meloni’s cabinet that will be funded by the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund, of which Italy is the biggest beneficiary, and was put to the lower house in a confidence vote on Tuesday. The package of measures is expected to comfortably pass in the senate, too.

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